Education

Research interests

Formal and informal educational experiences that influence achievement, literacy and eventually persistence in science-related career fields, especially among underrepresented groups in STEM

Career highlights

Serving on the advisory board for grant development and implementation, which examines the extent to which informal STEP activities that target pre-college students influence career aspirations, for the Outreach Programs and Science Career Intentions (OPSCI), a National Science Foundation STEP grant (NSF DUE 1161052, STEP).

Subcontract principal investigator for Project Exploring Longitudinal Research on Out-of-school Time Experiences in STEM (EXPLORE). Project EXPLORE is a National Science Foundation AISL grant funded to design and implement a large-scale, multi-programmatic, longitudinal study of the United States’ and United Kingdom’s informal science learning programs (NSF DRL 1451275, AISL).

Received the first VCU School of Education Presentations to Publications Award in 2014 and the McLeod Faculty Development Award in 2015.

Bio

Dr. Katherine P. Dabney teaches courses in science methods to pre-service elementary teachers. Her teaching interests include a focus on helping pre-service teachers plan and develop methods to foster interest, engage students and prepare effective lessons within the field of early science education.

Before joining the faculty at VCU, Dabney was an elementary school teacher in Albemarle County Public Schools and a GED instructor in the Charlottesville City Schools. These teaching experiences inspired Dabney to pursue and graduate with a Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Virginia.

At VCU since 2012, Dr. Dabney is involved in grant-funded research, supervision and mentoring of master’s and doctoral students, and production and dissemination of STEM education research with her research group, the VCU Early Science Education Research Lab. More recently, Dabney had Project EXPLORE, a National Science Foundation Advancing Informal Science Learning grant, funded as a subcontract principal investigator in collaboration with the University of Virginia.

For more information about Dabney and the VCU Early Science Education Research Lab, please visit her website.